Holly Potter: The Bookish, Burgling, Badass (Hp x Mcu) by Personfour

Chapter 25: Summer 1995 (IV)

Summary:

Holly deals with the effects of sleep loss, accidentally physically intimidates people, tries to be somewhat socially aware for once, and makes a troubling announcement.

Notes:

Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback, I've gone back and added the line breaks through all the old chapters.

The last month before the term started was... mind numbing, in more ways than one.

At first Adult Tom attacked her mind 24/7, obviously believing she'd break quickly under his attack.  Which meant Holly, even with strengthened anti-migraine and pain-relief potions, was in a debilitating amount of pain.

Constant "getting stabbed in the forehead with a flaming knife" levels of pain.

Which meant she couldn't sleep any more than short, restless naps.

Fun times.

For 10 days and nights Holly endured.  Because that was all she could do: endure.  Any plans she'd had to overpower him in a mental struggle died quickly after she realized the bastard was still better at attacking minds than her.  Sure, he couldn't outright steal memories, but was far stronger in terms of brute force.

Which, in hindsight, wasn't surprising.  She had very little experience attacking protected minds, having mostly stolens memories from normal people.

She'd need to wait until his mind was vulnerable to strike back.

At least Hermione's increasingly incredulous expressions and theorizing was amusing.  According to her, the fact Holly was semi-coherent, even with her restless naps, by the 10th day was shocking. 

As for Adult Tom?  He was many things but unfortunately weak-willed wasn't one of them. 

The bastard managed to stay awake and attack her mind nonstop for 10 days.  She'd thought he'd stop after a day or two but noooo.   The stubborn bastard never stopped . 

Not even to sleep.

For 10 days and nights he raged, endlessly attacking her mind; something only possible because her stamina elixer had transferred over to him.

There was one upside though: during those 10 days the war slowed down dramatically , buying them some much needed time to regroup.  According to Hermione, the Order said he hadn't led a single attack since.

It proved what Holly had suspected early on: to seriously attack her mind he needed to focus on it.  Sounded stupid until she realized the massive implications for how their mental warfare would impact everyone else.

Adult Tom was the highly visible leader of his cult. His days were busy leading attacks, terrorizing his minions, and whatever else cult leaders did.  He had a busy schedule, far busier than Holly herself.  Not to mention a public image of indomitable strength to project at all times. 

Holly, in comparison, was actively being told to do nothing except defend her mind. 

She even did as told: by keeping Adult Tom's focus on her she was saving a ton of lives, buying vital time for the Order and Ministry to regroup. Sure, they probably weren't making the most of it, but at least it was good for morale.  The fact it cost the majority of her mental faculties was worth it. 

The Order kept evacuating and sheltering muggleborns, the Ministry was implementing the panic buttons, and all Holly had to do was devote her full mental focus to guarding her mind. 

All for the (not) small price of Holly herself being in constant extreme pain and misery.

Fun.  Just wonderful.